A Real Vacation

This past weekend was the July three-day. It happens every year and I can't for the life of me remember what we did last year or even the year before... Probably some kind of endtimes bender to prepare for the fact that early leavers leave like... well too soon to think about.

But for this July three-day, I was on the ball months in advance. I figured it would be a big weekend for the folks at HappyRaft and really wanted to get in that river in July, not September, because my only other experience there was awesome saving the one factor of the (relative) cold.

That part of Shikoku, down by the Oboke and Koboke, near the Yoshino River, right about the smack dab middle of the island, is unlike any place I've ever seen before. I went white water rafting for the first time in Tennessee, and the second time in Shikoku, and I liked Shikoku way better. It may be because I was more comfortable then (with the idea of rafting), or ready to see the landscape around me with more awe-infused eyes... Or it may have been that the whole atmosphere was different, the cliffs and the guides from Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, the fellow boat-mates from Japan. Rafting is a team effort and it helps to have a good team. Japanese folks are pretty good at teamwork, you know?

Everyone in that valley that we encountered seemed relaxed and laid back. The homes and businesses were almost all built clinging to the sides of the mountains, as there was no real flat valley area to speak of. Going to the grocery store requires you to just take what is available (which may not be enough meat for your group for that night) because it's a little mom n' pop place. Everything down there feels older, most lost somehow, like if you went down there without a cell phone, no one would ever find you again.

It's perfect for a vacation. Back  home, there's an apartment to sort, sift, pack, and clean. There are Last Lessons to conduct and all kinds of paperwork to begin or continue or finish. There are speeches to think about and write, there are books to read and just.. a lot of stuff to do. Even more (haha, yeah) than normal. But when you're in the middle of Shikoku, where it takes twenty minutes to zig-zag your way up to whatever small cabin you happen to inhabit, when you're under the sun on the turquoise water, when you're neck deep in the ice cold canyon creek.. it's like all that stuff doesn't exist. When we're cooking dinner in our cabin, drinking our beers, it's like.. you forget that this is the last weekend we're going to do this kind of thing together, maybe ever. It's like you're so far away that nothing matters.

So you get back, and yeah it's all still there. It's all still waiting for you. The endtimes are still upon us. And now you're three days closer to the deadline, and no closer to done. And all you may have to show for it is a sunburn, a digicard full of photos, and the memory of mountains vastly different from these, a valley much steeper and deeper and wilder than this one full of mundane Shire-like idyll.

But that's kind of what vacation is.

Tales from the road, Day 1:

All five of us in our massive van.

Carl expresses his feelings about our first stop: the Sapporo Winery Okayama

Sam has the driver sticker despite his position in the backseat.

The long bridge

Last minute decision to stop at Kompirasan, home of one of the biggest ships/seafaring shrines 

The approach to Kompirasan

We note that everyone coming down from this shrine looks like they have been on a log flume. We hope there is a log flume but expectations are low.

A very cute dog.

Tales from the River, Day 2:

Morning view from our Wada Hideaway

Way better than a log flume.

This is not the highest rock jump

THIS is the highest rock jump.

This is what we look like after

Tales from the canyon, Day 3:

The way home

Complete with little origami on the dash that we picked up at some tollbooth or other

And this is how we all feel at the end.

Imakumano Kannon-ji

Temple number 15, and for me, number two.

West Country Number 15

From Kansai by the Seat

I realized belatedly that the idea of going in order was not only unnecessarily, but already had been violated by me when I purchased my book and had it stamped at Nariai-ji. I was so hot to get on the pilgrimage but I hadn’t realized I was already on it.

And even though my reasons for going on it have evolved with new knowledge and with encouragement from a Buddhist nun of Australian origin, I still wanted to do it Right, and In Order, insofar as I could.

But since the typhoon had sort of effed up that plan…

My first planned temple visit was Imakumano Kannon-ji.

I’m going to share here what struck me most about the place, and for more detailed information (and also the source for most of whatever info I can share) please see this page (specifically, here for temple 15), replete with photos and great information.

I used my phone to navigate me into the temple, so it took me the back way. This meant I missed out on crossing the special gateway bridge at first, but got to do it on the way out.

Just a shrine gate along the way.

From Kansai by the Seat

From Kansai by the Seat

The gateway bridge is in lieu of a classic large gate that temples usually have. The orange bridge is connected to the Kumano Gongen spirit, and takes the place of the vermillion torii gate you often see at the entrance to shrines (not temples).

One of the first things I saw, though, was the path through the graveyard area behind the temple. Then I saw the main temple building. I found my way around to the front and got a good look at a pretty interesting statue: Kobo Daisha. It’s called the Komamori Daishi, which means child-protecting Daishi. Apparently, Kobo Daishi opened the first school in Japan that was available to all children, and not just noble-born boys. Being involved in education myself, I gave my own special little salute to this statue.

From Kansai by the Seat

Another striking thing I discovered was the image of Bokefuji Kannon. I’m used to seeing images of Buddha or others holding/caring for babies, especially the mizuko (stillborn, aborted, or miscarried babies), but this statue of Kannon is flanked by old people, not children. Bokefuji Kannon is the one you pray to if you want to prevent senile dementia.  Since there are so very many old people in Japan, this seems a good image to have around; it’s not something I’ve thought seriously about in my own case, because at least for now, senility seems far enough off.

From Kansai by the Seat

In the main temple area, I lit some incense and got my book stamped. The friendly priests told me I could go inside if I liked. I took off my shoes and sat a little while, too haunt to take photos right there, instead staring at the decoration and offerings, the bell and meditative.. what, equipment? and thought about what kind of quest it was I might be on, and what I was doing there.

From Kansai by the Seat

On the temple grounds, there’s also a mini shrine to Kumano Gongen, the Shinto version of the Juichimen Kannon (eleven-faced Kannon), enshrined more grandly in Wakayama. I said a little prayer here for the recovery of the Kumano’s home area. Next to it is a little Inari shrine. I love the Inari, those foxy tricksters of good harvest, so I said my usual thing with them.

From Kansai by the Seat

There is also a miniature pilgrimage on the grounds of all 33 temples, which I glanced over quickly (but just quickly as the light was beginning to fail, especially on the woodsy path). I walked up to the pagoda, but didn’t spend much time there.

From Kansai by the Seat

From Kansai by the Seat

On my way out, I took the main road, and followed a family with their dog a little ways. Instead of going directly back to the station, I made an effort to find a bus that would get me to where the brothers were currently hanging about. On the way to that, I found the Imakumano Shrine. This happened when I was walking and I saw a giant awesome tree (and we know how I feel about trees) ringed with the telltale this-is-holy sign of a rope with the folded white paper things.

From Kansai by the Seat

This is a larger shrine, also connected to the one in Wakayama, but with even stronger ties. Observe:

From Kansai by the Seat

All in all, this my second visit to a pilgrimage temple was much more informed and also much more time-consuming than my first nearly unwitting one last May.

As I go to various temples, I want to share as much about the experience as I can via blog.. so if you have any questions, please do ask (leave a comment). Nothing is too silly or too personal (if it is, I just won’t answer it, hah!); also, I do realize that a lot of this is like a foreign jargon, all these names of temples and sort of.. versions? Incarnations? Of Kannon, and of mountain spirits, and whatnot. Rest assured that I’m only one step ahead of you on figuring out most of those, and that I experience the delight of discovery every time I make the connections (since the connections are not very-well forged) between temples with affinities or with similar names, or whatever. Don’t let the terminology scare you off, just ask!

Happy Monday

Monday, May 9th, was like some kind of anomaly in the world of Mondays.

I had the day off because it was my school's "Foundation Day," which fortuitously came at the end of the Okinawa trip. If I had known about the day off in advance, I might have tried to extend my stay in Okinawa yet longer, but as we have seen, that would have been a not so good idea. So, instead, I just had an extra day to recover from vacation before heading back to work.

Monday was dazzlingly sunny and quite warm. These are perfect laundry conditions. In the winter, laundry takes about a full day in the sun to dry. More often than not, it would end up hanging from my closet door while I ran the heater at night. One thing I like about spring and summer (rainy season excluded) is the way you can hang laundry out more frequently, with much faster results.

So I did some laundry, and I finished unpacking, and I made a foray into the garden which had somehow lost all its color (other than greeeeen) during my absence. And there I discovered 8.6 zillion motherfucking aphids on each cluster of leaves on my little plum tree. Any kind of insect, especially large numbers of very small ones, which is eating something in my garden makes me really, really, irrationally angry. I want nothing more in the world than to end their lives as quickly as possible. Because how dare those little bastards be destroying my poor innocent plants that are not hurting anyone and that are tenuously enough holding on to life as it is? The little flowers and trees out there are just tryin' to grow, and they are bright and a beauty and a joy and anything that brings harm to them must instantly cease to do so, or die.

From 2011_04_30

This murderous rage was the only blot of negative energy on the whole morning. The rest was spent relishing my plan to visit the Thousand-Year Fuji (wisteria) of Yamasaki. I decided to go and see it on a general foray into town by bike, the usual, bank (what's the damage, Okinawa?), post office (packages to pick up, letters to send). Osaki-san had said the best days of the fuji blooms were usually right through Golden Week (3rd - 5th of May), but I had resolved to go check it out as soon as I could get over there after getting back from Okinawa.

Of course, as with any season-dependent plant life, dates only give general ideas of when the best time will be. There are photos on display at the shrine by the sen-nen fuji showing it in full bloom on May 10th, and another year, April 28th. People come from far and wide to see this thousand-year fuji (recall our own pilgrimage to the thousand-year sakura tree in Yabu), from Osaka and maybe even beyond, so I figured I was pretty lucky since I could just bike a few blocks.

Last year, I went to see the place when it was just past its prime. I had heard of it, but didn't even know where the shrine was until it was too late! A few hangers-on wandered in the pleasant shade, and there was the mild scent of dried flowers, some of the fallen petals crunching softly underfoot.

From 2010_05_16

I went a few more times to that shrine just to poke around and enjoy it. I think of it (quite all made-up by me, I assure you) as the shrine to Japanese Venus, or sort of like that equivalent (femininity, growth, fertility, love, etc.), partly because I went there at a time when I was thinking about Venus and new beginnings and healing and growth, and partly because of this statue:

The shrine is called 大歳神社, or "Otoshi shrine" .. and it turns out that is more associated to Jupiter, than anything.

From 2011_05_09

This year, as I rode up the hill to where I thought I should park my bike, the warm breeze wafted a lovely floral scent over me. I realized with a start that it was coming from the wisteria. I was prepared for the color, and the crowds of old people, but I had not thought about the way the place would smell (I, being lately rather sensitive to smells; recall how a whiff of the moldy smell in our condo made me queasy). I went into the main area to sit in the shade and breathe in the fresh gentle smell of it all. It was absolutely awesome. The photos don't do the warmth or smell any justice, but at least you can see some of the blooms (click through to go to the album):

From 2011_05_09

From 2011_05_09

From 2011_05_09

From 2011_05_09

I thought this was cool, the blooms coming out of this vine near the ground! The main trunk in the center of the pavilion did not have this.

From 2011_05_09

I also really liked the idea that I could go run my errands, then come back again and sit for a minute, if I liked. I resolved to do so, and also to stop at Osaki-san's "open garden" (she lives really close to the Sen-nen Fuji) and ask her advice on those gdmf aphids back home.

When I went to Osaki-san's, I didn't know what to really expect. What we had there was, older people, mostly ladies, wandering in in nice dress to take traditional matcha tea (complete with a sweet) in Osaki-san's beautifully appointed tea room, with a view to the garden. Then she walked through the garden with the lady I happened to sit next to and take tea with, and pointed out some stuff for both of us. Before I left, she gave me a nice big bottle of AphidDeath (named by me) to borrow, and also some riceballs, which I took back to the fuji to eat for lunch while basking in the ancient plant's sweet presence.

As I biked home, there were cars lined up all the way to the main road, and people walking along the street between the Michi-no-eki (road station) and fuji. There's really no parking up by the shrine. I felt even more pleased to be on a bike, and decided to visit the fuji every day for a little while, if I could (of course, this plan was foiled by three straight days of heavy rain, which also did their part to take out most of the blooms and leave the display in worse shape than I found it last year!).

I spent the early afternoon doing a bit of gardening, finishing up some chores, and getting ready for the evening. At 4pm I had my second HPV vaccine shot. The paperwork runaround eventually led me downstairs where a nurse with a "I'm new" badge on her nametag asked me which arm I preferred to take my painful injection in. Another nurse corrected her, showing her that it was already written on my form, that these things were all decided ahead of time. I thought, awesome, the last shot left my arm sore for two days. This is going to be hurt like a bitch and a half with sweet nurse Newbie stabbing me.

She was super sweet, though, and as she got ready to stick me (with all the seasoned nurses, including the one who got me last time, standing by in a line against the wall, watching), she said "It's going to hurt, so be brave!" I took a breath and tried not to remember how, when I was 13, a nurse had to try like five times to get the IV in my hand properly because she was new. But just because it was Happy Monday, maybe, the shot didn't even burn like the last one did, and the following day, the muscle was only a little sore (nothing like the time before!).

I hurried home to get ready for homemade okonomiyaki dinner at Heke's dance teacher's house, which was excellent, and of which there was too much food, of course. Wrapped up the night by going over trivia questions with Lester for the Pub Quiz at the end of the month. All in all, an excellent day.